Throughout, say, the Coolidge administration, political observers could be
content with writing only weekly diatribes or paeans about Cal's languorous
ways. Nixon, on the other hand, offered daily-update opportunities for opinion
factories. His tortured and abysmal terms were the 20th-century high point for
political commentary. True, discerning opinion maintained a steady one-way course,
since Dick obliged by being so steadily corrupt, but a column a day could still
pretty much provide an accurate and necessary record of the 37th president's
infamy.

All that has passed.

Today, with George Junior in office, a daily column couldn't begin to offer
enough perspective on all the weird executive branch goings-on. Two a day wouldn't
cut it, nor even three. One would have to write a 1000-word column every 30
minutes to keep up. The Bushies are a wily bunch -- and forever on the move.

As proof, I offer a few news stories from a mere 2-day period in June: the
18th and 19th, chosen wholly at random. In just 48 hours the Bush administration
and its obedient minions did enough to keep commentators' heads spinning for
months.

On the 18th the New York Times reported in a headline: "G.O.P.
Dismisses Questions on Banned Arms Proof in Iraq." Well, isn't that special.
Mr. Bush characterized any questioning of this, the biggest foreign policy fiasco
in American history, as "revisionist." One of his top national security
advisors predicted the administration "can ride this out" -- demonstrating
an utter lack of regard for any original honesty -- and God love him, Newt Gingrich
reappeared long enough to confirm that only "the literary class that dislikes
Bush and dislikes American activism is thrilled to have this question
to raise."

The literary class? And how was it these questions came to arise?

Reuters reported the same day that the president "will not tolerate"
-- his words -- nuclear arms in Iran. Good for him. We can't have rogue nations
led by rogue leaders running around with rogue WMD (as Iraq was doing, yes?).
Perhaps if Iran concentrates on nuclear "bunker blasters" rather than
conventional nuclear weapons it'll become ok by us. We like bunker blasters:
they're nuclear, but not that nuclear.

Then, a day later, man-of-his-word Secretary of State Colin Powell announced
that "no issue is of greater urgency" to the administration than North
Korea's WMD developments. As the Washington Post reported, Powell's remarks
"suggested" that North Korea "has begun to supplant Iraq and
the unsatisfactory search for its weapons of mass destruction as [the administration's]
central focus." Or hocus-pocus.

During this 48-hour period Mr. Bush also issued a stern federal ban on racial
profiling; a ban, that is, which permits racial profiling. The new policy "does
nothing to stop it," said an American Civil Liberties Union spokeswoman.
"It's largely a rhetorical statement." Mere rhetoric from the Bush
people? No doubt the ACLU lady is a member of "the literary class."

Also during this 2-day period White House political chieftains deleted scientific
findings on global warming from a forthcoming Environmental Protection Agency
report; the president made clear his intention to open more wounds with Senate
Democrats by suggesting a Ken Starr lackey for a seat on the U.S. Court of Appeals,
D.C. Circuit (second in legal authority only to the Supreme Court); and Bush
lapdog strategist Grover Norquist assured Washington Post columnist David
Broder that conservatives "are going to dig out [Democrats'] whole structure
of programs and power." That includes quite a bit, like your Social Security
and mine.

All this, in 48 hours. The torrent of ideological coups and political deceptions
stemming from the Bush administration now pose an impossible task for the commentariat:
to inform through perspective. There just isn't enough time.

More Comments:

richard crump -
10/21/2003

i graduated from the university of illinois the same as carpenter. i must say he's not a credit. dick crump

Wolf DeVoon -
7/5/2003

Thanks for bringing an important factoid to our attention. We all knew something smelled bad, but couldn't quite figure out why. Now that you mention it -- yep, we're being deceived and flattered at Warp Speed by the Bushies.

W.

Mark Yannone -
6/30/2003

"In just 48 hours the Bush administration and its obedient minions did enough to keep commentators' heads spinning for months."

We know what happens to things that move rapidly and cause a lot of friction, don't we? I can hear the sirens already.

Herodotus -
6/30/2003

if Mr. Carpenter, or people who espouse his unilateral, railroad-straight methods of thinking, ever find themselves in positions of significant decision-making authority.

I wonder what his views on the supposed looting of Iraq's heritage are...